Posted:12th May 2008these are stolen from magicians normally called a wand non fire ones use invisible thread and fire ones can use a blacked kevlar string or flexible on flammable wire I started learning this 2 years ago at play and have seen a proper magiacain one where the exess string is on a weight in a hollow tube so when the thread is released the weight sucks the string almost al the way in. great fun I couldn't use one on elastic as the stretch would be weird lol

A couple of balls short of a full cascade... or maybe a few cards short of a deck... we'll see how this all fans out.

Posted:13th May 2008Mynci, I found my son's last night and it is really weird.The elastic makes it alot more like a yo-yo than the wand (my magician friend has one as well, and I forgot about it until you mentioned it, no fire for his tho).

Neither one has the chord on both sides like the one in the video seems to.Have the magic ones you've worked with had two lines going into it?

Pele Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir"Oooh look! A pub!" -exclaimed after recovering from a stupid fall"And for the decadence of art, nothing beats a roaring fire." -TMK

They're really fun to play with and if you have a poi background and can stall really well, they're pretty easy to control. They attach to one hand, but the trick is to move two hands around to make it look like it attached to both, then people wonder how it can go around your body etc.

Ours have cotton thread.

No, the video only had one string, you can tell by the fact he always leads with right hand, and can go over his head, but btb, he has to unspin.

Great toy, I only got introduced to it this month.

Our is not fire, it's from the flowtoys shop i think, for UV shows... Silver and shiny with a black invisible thread.

Posted:14th May 2008Ours here is what Mynci describes but on elastic. That takes alot of work to get it to do what we want.The hole is also centered so it stays more horizontal than vertical, but it does some great stalls and retractions.

The stick is flame patterened and the end are "heads"It's a start

Pele Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir"Oooh look! A pub!" -exclaimed after recovering from a stupid fall"And for the decadence of art, nothing beats a roaring fire." -TMK

Posted:14th May 2008Yup the flow toys on is the one i have and they are so loverly.It only has one string but you'll find if you take the clear bead thing of the string it can open in to a loop this makes it possible to use bothe hands for a bit or to swap hands.

Posted:14th May 2008radthanks guys, i tied some string to one of my pixies the other night and had a go, really awkward with two hands. then neon dave showed up which was loverly in itself, but he had a bit of englandshire knowledge to share with me on 'wands'.. ill check out the flowtoys, and try one hand ed, and get back to you

Posted:14th Oct 2008I visited Salza when I was in Scandinavia in August and purchased several things from them including the levistick.

You will find that the levisticks will have one hole (entry and exit) for the loop.

I've played around with it on and off, and have yet to light it, but it is a lot of fun. the challenge as highlighted in previous posts is keeping the stick vertical while you manipulate it and also using your free hand to give the illusion that both or no hands are required.

I've yet to figure out any smooth entry/exits for the levistick (i.e. going from twirling the levistick like a normal pixie staff to using it like a levistick), but that will come once I'm able to use it well.

Posted:14th Oct 2008I have really been getting in to the levistick since uber. Have been using a flowwand for the last year or so, but bought the salza brass levi a couple of weeks ago. Have a second one on the way (hopefully arriving today/tomorrow), they are a really nice weight and im impressed with the quality.

Brenn, I have the same problem as you trying to transition from one style to another. Only smooth(ish) way I have really found is to hold the levi in the opposite hand to which it is attached to, then taking up the tension with your arms as you release it. Throw in a pirouette or some sort of flourish and it seems to keep the illusion of floating out instead of jerking. Any other suggestions?EDITED_BY: Basstones (1223954226)

Posted:15th Oct 2008Originally Posted By: BasstonesI have really been getting in to the levistick since uber. Have been using a flowwand for the last year or so, but bought the salza brass levi a couple of weeks ago. Have a second one on the way (hopefully arriving today/tomorrow), they are a really nice weight and im impressed with the quality.

Do you have any suggestion on which colors look best? Your endorsement is enough for me.

Posted:15th Oct 2008Originally Posted By: NYCOriginally Posted By: BasstonesI have really been getting in to the levistick since uber. Have been using a flowwand for the last year or so, but bought the salza brass levi a couple of weeks ago. Have a second one on the way (hopefully arriving today/tomorrow), they are a really nice weight and im impressed with the quality.

Do you have any suggestion on which colors look best? Your endorsement is enough for me.

I decided to go for the brass model purely for the extra weight. I find the heavier models alot easier to keep on plane and for stalls etc. Was also worried about how the lighter models might react with a breeze. Only fear I have with the brass is the heat transfer as I am intending on doing some doubles stuff with them. Will be lighting mine up tonight hopefully so can get some real experience with them.

Might try and get a few photos of it before i light it up tonight, might come in handy for anyone considering getting one.

Completly agree about poi skills transferring to levi, alot of common ground between them. Although even if you have no experience with any object manipulation it seems to be one of the easiest toys to teach. Took my salza to a family dinner last night, within 10 minutes my 8 year old brother was addicted to it and already getting all the basics in forward and reverse.

Seems like a very suitable toy for kids in general, quick to learn, low danger, basic material requirements and well...a heap of fun!

I'm intrigued about your report on Brass vs. Aluminum. I was leaning towards aluminum for some reason. But brass seems to handle better.

Also, the levi stick I was playing with this weekend was using kevlar string which kept breaking. Is that the same stuff that your stick has? It must have broken 4 times in the 20 minutes I was playing.

Posted:15th Oct 2008Hmm.. i have one and from the look and feel of it and the way you have to handle it you would have to try pretty hard to break it during general use. I suppose the string could wear through but that is probably to be expected like with a diablo.

That said it would not be hard to break or bend it by accident when you are transporting it or storing it. Thats why i keep mine in a little postage tube with a few other delicate props.

Posted:15th Oct 2008Originally Posted By: NYCI was contemplating the LED ones as well.

Any news on them?

I'm intrigued about your report on Brass vs. Aluminum. I was leaning towards aluminum for some reason. But brass seems to handle better.

Also, the levi stick I was playing with this weekend was using kevlar string which kept breaking. Is that the same stuff that your stick has? It must have broken 4 times in the 20 minutes I was playing.

Yes, a full report please.

I am yet to experience any of the LED levi's, only seen the photos on the salza site. I have personally not had the best experiences with that style of LED. For that reason alone I am not really interested in buying a set. I know that Prisna from flowtoys currently has her own LED levi (couple of photos on their site). Last I heard they were hoping to move it in to production sometime next year, will also apparently be an upgraded version of what she is currently using.

So i'm just sitting back waiting for something to come out basically...

I probably should have mentioned that I tend to stray on the heavier side for most of my toys. Need to get get some other hands on to these and get some other opinions.

Yes mine is using the kevlar string. They do come with a little pamphlet explaining it wears out and that you should regularly check etc... Will have to check to see if i had an approx amount of burns. They also supplied some replacement string for about five replacements. I admit I am slightly concerned of it burning through, but if you are vigilant it should be fine. In terms of practice, I have been using mine on the original string for two weeks now, it appears to have some wear (a bit fluffy, nothing more) but doesn't appear to much of a concern. I have a spool of the HoP string somewhere, so will probably move on to that once i run out.

Replacing the string appears to be a simple procedure, but hard to say since I haven't done it yet.

Just dropped by home and lunch and postage slip is there! Woohoo! Now just have to wait 3 hours before I can go collect it, i'm sure that time will fly by

Posted:15th Oct 2008We bought a flowwand a few months ago and I have had two glow wands and two fire wands from salza quite recently.

I tock my glow wand to common Ground and everyone seemed to think it was effective.

Going from a flow wand to the glow wand was a bit difficult... Flow wand seems a bit more stable, stays vertical easier while the glow wand does tilt very often and you have to be gentle then more forceful then gentler again to avoid the tilting.

Also, since the flow wand is so thin, the string (two strings) which come from it are quite thin... while the glow wand is a lot thicker so that the strings that are coming from it are further apart, and therefore there is a wider area that you can hit the top of the stick to the string.I combat this by spinning the wand first so the strings are wrapped around each other, and are therefore thinner and harder to hit.

Also, the Glow wand's string is a lot longer so it is possible to put an entire hand, or two hands in the string in a noose...

Flow wand I put one finger in a noose. Putting it around one hand means it can spin easier above your head without hitting your other fingers...I was also told that with an entire hand in the loop (the string is around four fingers below my knuckles, but not including my thumb...) it means my fingers can make more movement and be more 'magical' and expressive, while before when the flow wand was around my middle finger, there was less finger movement possible...

We have a problem with one of our glow wands in that the leds change colour rapidly, but at different speeds (noticable when you co-ordinate them and after a bit they are no longer in time...) Though I think this may be an individual fault rather than overall...

I'd love for it to have Concentrate type controls so I could vary the speed of colour change or have a single colour... but these are the only glow ones we found on the market...

Which brand levistick did you find the leds to be colorchanging at different speeds? (it actually would be tougher to coordinate them to change at the exact same speed I'd think...)

I guess my questions should be more fundamental.

Which fire and which non-fire wand should I start out with?

Can you give me a sense how to chose between metals of the salza site? And is it the salza leds that you have experience with?

I'm thinking of ordering a fire and LED from salza but would love more info before I order.

Thanks again!

Personally I would be putting my vote towards a flowtoys flowwand. They are a very friendly levi and I find it slightly more forgiving than the fire ones. I believe they also have a UV tipped version at the moment, I will be ordering one next wednesday to replace my old one so can give a full review then. Lent out my old one to someone in August for a week and haven't seen it since...

Also the flowwand I would imagine you wouldn't need to be as worried about bending.

With the firewand, once again have only had experience with brass so hard to compare. What I will say is that not one person who has used mine has complained it has been too heavy. That includes being used by my 8 year brother, friends girlfriends, etc... and they have all had no issues getting the basics. Obviously though, still haven't felt it fully fueled up but I don't think its going to make a huge difference with the size of the wicks and the drag. Didn't get to burn last night, storm came in straight after dark, BAH!

Will send you a pm about my LED experiences.

Took a whole heap of photos of the new equipment yesterday. Just need to wait until I can get a copy off my friends camera and will throw them up in my gallery.

Great to see some interest in this toy!EDITED_BY: Basstones (1224105489)